Understanding Twitter and the power of “re-tweet”: By Jeffrey Gitomer

I asked an audience of 200 mature salespeople and sales managers, “How many of you have a Twitter account with more than 500 followers?”

Two people raised their hand.
One of them was me.

I couldn’t believe it, so I asked again. Same response. Yikes.

It seems as though the mature (seasoned) salespeople are resisting Twitter or simply do not understand what the power in it, and efficacy of it.

With an estimated 125 MILLION accounts and millions of tweets a day, there MAY just be something to it. Especially since the Fortune 1000 are tweeting. Every newspaper and news agency is tweeting. Thousands of small businesses are tweeting.

What are you doing?
Are you tweeting every day?
Or are you stymied by the process and don’t quite know what to do? (Like most people.)

WARNING: Twitter for business has nothing to do with being in your pajamas, having a tough day, heading to the office, or other inane useless information. It also has nothing to do with “tweeple,” “tweeps,” or other buzzwords that are cute and condescending.

Twitter is about informing.
Twitter is about passing on information.
Twitter is about value messages.
Twitter is about connecting.
Twitter is about others finding value in your messages or information and passing it on to others. Known as “re-tweeting,” it’s proof that your message had enough value, content, or vital information that people in your network were willing to pass it on to their network. Cool.

BONUS: Your message, your tweet, is actually exposed to 125 million people through Twitter’s storing and searching features.

The key action to become searchable is the “hash tag.” If you want to attract others who may be also tagging or searching for the categories that you’re tweeting about, using the # symbol in front of your subject words will group your tweets with others of a like nature.

Yours might be cooking, golden retrievers, swimming, Phillies, Yankees, travel, cats, or whatever interests you. People tweet about everything under the sun, and you can find them globally in a millisecond.

You can also aggregate your tweets to appear on your LinkedIn account and on your business Facebook Page, where people can “Like” you.

In short, you can send information to your entire network every day. And if others find it interesting, or valuable, they will send it to their network.

How does a daily value tweet help you?
1. It challenges you to think and write. Daily discipline.
2. It challenges you to create viral messages so that you become better known as a person of value.
3. It challenges you to create the REAL law of attraction. Attraction = potential customer.
3.5 People will proactively connect with you. If they agree with you, and they respect you – they’ll tell others to connect with you as well.

You can also create category lists of any kind to compile your own “best of” by subject. Others wanting information on the same subject will find you. People add me to their list under categories like business success, personal inspiration, and sales. So far, I have been added to 1,187 lists that are reposting my tweets. You can make your own lists, but the key is to be added to other’s lists.

By choice, I do not use twitter for interactive communication. Occasionally I’ll ask a question of my followers (and get instant response), or tell them of an upcoming public seminar, but for the most part I tweet thought provoking statements. Re-tweetable statements.

Yesterday I tweeted: It’s easy to find and attract great people – just be a great person who does great things. #gitomer. It got a hundred re-tweets in 24 hours and many comments on my LinkedIn account.

Today I’m tweeting: An objection is actually a sales barrier. Lower the barrier, and reduce their perceived risk, and the sale is yours. gitomer

I try to keep my tweets under 120 characters, even though twitter permits 140. This way there’s plenty of space to re-tweet.

Here are last week’s most popular tweets of mine:
• If you’re looking to make more #sales NOW, make certain your prospective customers value you and your company first. gitomer
• The hardest door to open in #sales is NOT the car door – it’s the decision-makers door. gitomer

There is a secret to Twitter success. And it’s the same secret for all of social media – especially business social media: Wake up and WRITE. Just like I’m doing now.

Is it working? I have more than 22,800 followers so far. You tell me.

If you’d like a list of my 20 best tweets, go to www.gitomer.com, register if you’re a first time visitor, and enter the word TWEET in the GitBit box.

Jeffrey Gitomer is the author of The Little Red Book of Selling. President of Charlotte-based Buy Gitomer, he gives seminars, runs annual sales meetings, and conducts Internet training programs on selling and customer service at www.gitomer.com. He can be reached at 704/333-1112 or e-mail to salesman@gitomer.com